Life Lately {May}

May has been busy and feels like it flew by, but when I think back on the beginning it seems like so long ago.

The girls had their school Race for Education on the 2nd. Thankfully the weather was warm- Evie and Audrey ran hard while Heidi much preferred the chalk that was offered in the pre-K section. :)

Anyone have an idea what kind of flowers these are?

 The next day I took the girls to our parish festival. Tim headed up the Silent Auction this year and was super busy in the days leading up to and of the festival; my mom and sister helped me out a lot while we were there!

The week before Evie's First Communion her class wore their outfits to school to participate in the May Crowning.

I think every mother held her breath that half day hoping the outfits would stay pristine for the next week. Aside from a few pencil marks, we were good.:)

For Mother's Day Tim hired house cleaners as a gift. The only other time we've had that done was when our Realtor had our houses cleaned when we moved- seriously SUCH a great gift! I could not get over what a thorough job the ladies did and simultaneously felt like writing an apology note for all the supremely neglected areas they tackled. 

I also ordered this Miraculous Medal ring for myself.:)

On the 18th Evie received her 1st Holy Communion!

She wore the same veil one of my sister's and I wore- we were laughing because it has an elastic chin strap which we didn't remember at all!

We celebrated her special day afterwards with some family at our house. 

Earlier in the week I had ordered a cake from a new bakery downtown in the spirit of supporting small businesses. Well, it totaled over $45. For a cake! Oof. It was a very nice cake and three layers but looking back I should've just gone with cupcakes or something. 

The girls were introduced to the messy delight of packing peanuts

Cora's season of 'bottoms optional' has arrived.

Yesterday spent the day at a local winery with family. I didn't get any pictures but it was such a great day! We unloaded everything at two picnic tables and enjoyed wine (of course) and good food while the kids had lots of room to run and play. 

Enjoy the last days of May.:)

For Mrs. O

Before my family moved to where my parents now live, we had next door neighbors who moved from Germany. We lived in a cul-de-sac in a smallish neighborhood, so many of the kids play ran wild together and we knew a lot of the families who lived there. The O's were very friendly and many of us neighbors got to know them and their son. Mrs. O made THE best fudge and I'm sad I never got her recipe! Her mom came to visit once or twice and I remember taking her to mass with us and watching her silently cry during the mass. She gave me a small cross which I wore on my First Communion and still have today.

For my First Communion Mrs. O gave me a silver sugar spoon and pie server and told me she had received them for her First Communion. Well, eventually, much to everyone's disappointment they had to move back to Germany. They had given birth to another son while in the USA and we all hoped they would be able to move back someday when that son was older, but it wasn't meant to be. Our families kept in touch for a time via snail mail but over time lost contact, although we still talked about them from time to time.

Fast forward several years to the birth of social media- several of my siblings and I friended the O's older son, and then over time several of us got off of Facebook. Then this past late summer, through my sister still on FB, the O's son phoned my parents and had a good chat with my mom. Unfortunately she found out that his mom was dying of a chronic illness, and then we got the news in October that she passed away. I want to cry every time I think about the fact that maybe we'd never have known about her passing. In this day and age of being so instantly connected it's still easy to lose touch. I can honestly say I don't think I'd have the gumption to ask someone for a phone number and make a phone call to long ago friends. 

Very soon we'll be celebrating Evie's First Communion and it means SO much to me that we'll be using the same silver that Mrs. O had once been gifted. I'll always remember her and her kindness.

God rest the soul of this good-hearted lady.